The Franklin Mint is a private mint that creates all sorts of spiffy collectibles. Some of their artwork is magnificent, and their execution is top-rung. For a decade starting in 1971, the Franklin mint produced 'Postmasters of America' medallic first day covers, often housed in beautiful binders with lots of printed material giving the history of each piece. What precisely does 'medallic first day cover' mean?

- 'Medallic' means the item contains a medal, a silver medal in this case- 'First Day Cover' means this item contains a stamp attached to a letter with a postmark dated the first day the stamp was issued, and a special cancel

First day covers are prized by stamp collectors, and silver medals are prized by coin collectors. This item combines the two. The trouble is, stamp collectors do not get along very well with coin collectors. It's either one or the other, not both.

We cannot tell you how much the stamps and covers are worth (after all, we don't like those nasty stamp collectors!), but we can tell you how much the medals are worth.

Each medal contains 0.8 troy ounces of sterling silver. Sterling is 92.5 percent pure, so the actual silver content of each medal is 0.925 x 0.8 = 0.74 troy ounces. Multiply the current price of silver by 0.74 and you will get the value of each medal.

For instance, today silver is selling for $19.38 US dollars per troy ounce (check it tomorrow, it changes every day, see kitco.com), so a single first day cover medal is worth 0.74 x 19.38 = $14.34. That is the basic value of the medal. If you take a medallic first day cover to a coin dealer, he or she will throw away the stamp, the cover, and all other material and then pay you about 60 to 70 percent of the basic medal value. If you find a collector who wants the whole item, you might be able to get 120 to 140 percent of the basic medal value.